Former world number one Mats Wilander believes that Serbia’s Novak Djokovic becomes an ‘animal’ when the chips are down. The 36-year-old is often regarded as the greatest player in the history of men’s tennis in the Open era, having won as many as 24 Grand Slam titles.
Djokovic is currently participating in the French Open, where he won a five-set thriller against Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti in the third round with a score of 7-5, 6-7, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0. The contest was special as it finished as late as three in the morning, the latest a match finished in the history of Grand Slams.
Wilander, who is regarded as one of the best players of his generation, was recently quoted in a report in which he heaped praise on the attitude of the reigning, who, according to him, becomes an animal, especially when the chips are down.
“The guy is not a human being, he becomes an animal on the best courts in the world; such a perfect example of what great champions are able to do even when things are not going their way the whole time,” he said.
“It’s one of the reasons he’s still out there and still beating records, because initially he doesn’t care about records, he cares about beating Musetti only for four and a half hours until three o’clock in the morning until someone reminds him.
“‘Yes, I know I’ve broken another record’, but for him, the day-to-day business is what is so amazing and what we couldn’t do for that long.
“He is 37 years old, and he’s still living day to day, moment to moment. How do you do that, Novak? This kind of match, you’d think ‘Get out of here, Novak. Go home, you have kids at home’. But he refuses to do that.”